Halo 2:

I've been playing it all day now - so far it's been a disgrace. The graphics and level design are terrible (literally two or three colors here folks), a step down from Halo 1 in most respects, the menu screens and vehicle physics are laughable, and the storyline isn't making any sense at all. Completely absent is the great flow of the vehicle physics that made Halo 1 enjoyable (the ghost is pathetically jittery); it appears to have left along with the innovative level design and lush, albeit low polygon, feel of the game. Instead, we are treated to the 'graphical upgrades' of poor bump mapping (really only helps on the character models) and blurred backgrounds during cinematics.

(yes, I do think this warrants its own thread)

Hmm, I don't, its blatantly the same topic as the other Halo 2 thread.

Ah well this has put a slight dampener on my excitement for it, but I'll probably still really enjoy it. We'll see...

Update: the first level sucks, the rest is pretty okay.

For some reason, the cutscenes with the Master Chief/other humans are really terrible, whereas the ones with the Covenant are quite excellent. I've gotten to the first big, open terrain level - truly, not as impressive or lush as Halo 1's first level was in terms of terrain (just with higher resolution textures and a pretty snazzy new water rendering system) but not too terrible. The Covenant/Halo installation architecture seems to have lost some of its style and slickness.

The physics system, however, appears to be the victim of a brutal rape. I have no idea why Bungie chose to do this. I would rather play a Halo sequel on the same engine than have them sacrifice key parts of the game for unnecessary graphical features.

Well, I have only just started playing it, and I feel about the same way, Cass. It feels less polished and cohesive, than Halo1. The bump mapping, where applied, just seems wrong, especially on character faces. The story didn't grab me from the start; sofar, I just feel like I am kind of going from 1 random objective to another. I have only just begun to play, so I am hoping it balances out a little. It's really ashame, and I feel sort of bad for Bungie. Seems they tried to stretch the xbox too far, hit some walls, made some cuts and visual sacrifices, and just couldn't bounce back with the polish of the first game (pun intended).

They did, however, do a kick ass job of supporting multiplayer, Xbox live and the ranking systems of players. You can log onto their hub, and view the top players, look at their past games, see all the statistics you could think of (where they capped flags, who they killed, where and with what weapon). All of this represented visually, on the maps. I think I even heard a coworker state that you could go back and watch the games of top players (I'll have to confirm this).

We obviously have 2 different views on halo 2.

personally, i feel the only halo worth a s**t is mine.. its slightly bent and not exactly centered upon my noggin, but the damned thing is still up there :heee:

one of my all time favorite quotes: he who has no sin may cast the first stone.. well i have a sack full of rocks and i'm ready to start hurling..

Cassius said:
Update: the first level sucks, the rest is pretty okay.

Oh dear, bit quick to apply the "Stamp Of Hate" were we?

Orpheus said:
personally, i feel the only halo worth a s**t is mine.. its slightly bent and not exactly centered upon my noggin, but the damned thing is still up there :heee:

Mr CS hating taboo has a halo?

For once Cas, I agree with you. Halo 2 does suck

I have been playing Halo 2 also since yesterday. The multiplayer if fun but the single player is dissapointing. The first Halo had a much better campaign. The story line is good and cutscenes are great for both covenent and humans. The graphics do push the Xbox to its limits which causes a few graphical glitches. There is no lag at all through out the entire game. Even on Blood Gulch with 16 people and vehicles and explosions everywhere the game still runs at a smooth 60 fps. There are many changes to the game which I did not like. THe new hud is hard to view and there are no health bars. The graphics are better but some things look a little wierd. I think the overused the bump mapping in the game and the texturing on the models actually looks worse. Everything in your view is closer which means you have worse peripheral vision. The plasma rifle sounds awesome and you can drive all the vehicles. The warthog feels different when driving it. I wish they kept the old HUD and kept the first person view when in the passenger seat of the warthog. THe bansion and scorpion tank move a lot slower. THe rocket launcher has a heat seeking mode. The pistol which was probably the best weapon in Halo is now a peice of crap in this game. The new kick ass weapon is the double SMGs and the elites sword. There is a basic summary of the game. The multiplayer is more friendly to newer people so people who want a real challenge will probably stick with Halo on comp. I enjoy the online play but would much rather play Halo's campaign.

Taking that the game is being shown on your TV how the f**k can you possibly notice anything above 30Hz (seeing as you claim it's doubling refresh speed)?

I don't know how they did it but it runs a lot smoother than the first Halo. Online play is just as smooth as single player.

That has nothing to do with the animation's speed though.
They probably took time to optimize net code this time through.

Halo2 < Other Games

I was never a big fan of the original Halo - I found it a little too simplistic gameplay wise, but it was by no means bad. If the sequel is more of the same then i'm sure it's a perfectly playable game (and by that I mean one that I would stick through till the end and have a bit of fun along the way). I just won't be buying it until it's re-released on the Xbox budget label (not sure what it's called!).

I think part of the problem some of you may be having, and I have too - is that you've all spent time editing for games and it makes you a much harsher critic than the average gameplayer. I've only recently started to enjoy playing games again over the last 6 months or so and that's simply because i've been trying to stop myself from looking for mis-aligned textures, or AI glitches etc.

Every review i've read of Halo 2 has given it a great rating, so they can't all be too far off the mark...

Leperous said:
Oh dear, bit quick to apply the "Stamp Of Hate" were we?

The nature of the Stamp of Hate is in its hasty application.

Adam Hawkins said:
Every review i've read of Halo 2 has given it a great rating, so they can't all be too far off the mark...

I don't know, most of the reviews for DOOM 3 were good and it was mediocre at best. The magazines have to suck up to the makers or they won't get their 'exclusives', after all :rolleyes:

I only played Halo 1's multiplayer, and that got old quick due to the poor level design and dumb weapons. I'd still rather play Goldeneye any day :biggrin:

I agree there are problems with the game, mainly the levels, I enjoy the gameplay and such, but the levels are confined and full of physics obeying objects that dont add to the game, but take away from it. And there are two questions I have:

Where the hell is that demo level that we all saw?

And If you completed the game. WHAT THE HELL!!!! this is just like the 2nd matrix move, ends in a cliff-hanger. WTF?

Well just beat the game and I can say it was wonderful. I began the game with dissapointment but ended it with a smile. There will definatly be a Halo 3 coming out. The story is great, the cinematics are great, the music is awesome and gives you that whole grand sceme feeling, the level design in the later levels is the best I have ever seen. The online multiplayer is fun. Now Halo 2 it isn't without its flaws but these can be overlooked. There are a few graphical glitches due to the Xbox being pushed to its limits, but they did a wonderful job keeping it running smooth. I noticed some AI problems but only on occasion. The vehicles and hud have been changed a little bit but they would've been better keeping them the way they were in Halo.
The story is great and is full of plot twists and unexpected events. I suggest either buying the game now if you have an Xbox or waiting for the comp version to avoid the graphical glitches. The first Halo was $50 for two years so this won't one be going down in price anytime soon.

Adam Hawkins said:
I think part of the problem some of you may be having, and I have too - is that you've all spent time editing for games and it makes you a much harsher critic than the average gameplayer. I've only recently started to enjoy playing games again over the last 6 months or so and that's simply because i've been trying to stop myself from looking for mis-aligned textures, or AI glitches etc.

I think you're right on target there Adam. It's impossible for me to play any game without an eye toward it's ugly spots. The same thing goes for writing. Ever since I started getting serious about that, I find it almost impossible to find an enjoyable novel. I'm constantly being irritated by the author's mistakes and or objectionable style.

Sorry buddy after the first Halo PC bomb I dont think anyone is going to do a Halo 2 PC. If you have a news source ill believe it. But taking that 30 fps cap off the game is asking for trouble, and is still going to cause problems, even on Halo 2 if it were ported.

bit quick to apply the "Stamp Of Hate" were we?

Get it right guys, it's the "Stamp o' Hate" :smile:

omegaslayer said:
Where the hell is that demo level that we all saw?

What demo was that?

Multiplayer CTF level where they were on a section of beach playing around with buggies and those flying things, recorded from the presentation where they announced the launch date and that idiot had it tatooed on his arm. I saw the same level on the trailer I think.

It might be a downloadable level later on.

omegaslayer said:
Sorry buddy after the first Halo PC bomb I dont think anyone is going to do a Halo 2 PC. If you have a news source ill believe it. But taking that 30 fps cap off the game is asking for trouble, and is still going to cause problems, even on Halo 2 if it were ported.

I believe Halo for the PC sold over a million units. That's only mildly common the console market and a total rarity in the PC sector. With Halo 2 by far outperforming Halo in sales, it'd be foolish economically to not develop a port.

That's not saying it'd be perfect, but Halo on the PC, regardless of some people's perceptions of it, was a solid success (and really isn't nearly as bad as a lot of people like to make it out to be).

By the way, omega, you need to work on your use of spoiler info. Talking about the ending = no-no. Giving a spoiler in black text so you have to highlight it = good, but then describing an aspect of the spoiler in plain text defeats the purpose of doing so anyway. I'm trying hard to avoid reading your posts until I finish the game :wink:

But let it be said I think the game freakin' rocks my face. Cinematics get much better, gameplay is crazy-fun, and the story development is really intriguing. Marine AI is stupid as hell, but gives some fun random lines. Levels are much better looking this time around. Still semi-repetitive at some points, but not as much so, and the thing is they're wonderfully designed - even though the architecture and visual aspect is sometimes iffy, the actual gameplay design of each level is crazy good (better with a bigger FOV, I think) and always fun to fight in, which is the most important aspect of it. If a room's fun, they might as well get all the milage they can out of it. :smile:

Thanks for the hint KFS I guess thats why im not good at holing things in ..... But If someone puts out a Halo 2 PC (preferably someone other than gearbox) Ill buy it if they fix the FPS cap thing....Unlikely though.... :sad:

I guess I'm about halfway through it, right now, and have a whole new impression of the game now. Once I got to the city, and got ahold of some vehicles, it became VERY fun. The vehicles are a treat, I am especially fond of ghosts and wraiths (mmm..shooting banshees out of the sky with a Wraith you just jacked). Enemy A.I. is also very impressive.

I am still bugged by the bump mapping on some characters faces, and the detail popping during cut-scenes, but the solid gameplay and dynamic environments makes those gripes miniscule.

omegaslayer said:
Thanks for the hint KFS I guess thats why im not good at holing things in ..... But If someone puts out a Halo 2 PC (preferably someone other than gearbox) Ill buy it if they fix the FPS cap thing....Unlikely though.... :sad:

How can you say that? Gearbox did a great job of porting the game. You usually never see a game ported that smoothly.

Finger said:
I guess I'm about halfway through it, right now, and have a whole new impression of the game now. Once I got to the city, and got ahold of some vehicles, it became VERY fun. The vehicles are a treat, I am especially fond of ghosts and wraiths (mmm..shooting banshees out of the sky with a Wraith you just jacked). Enemy A.I. is also very impressive.

I am still bugged by the bump mapping on some characters faces, and the detail popping during cut-scenes, but the solid gameplay and dynamic environments makes those gripes miniscule.

I agree with you. I found the game much more fun in the later levels. You can also see how the bump mapping actually improves later on. I think they went a little over board with it in some of the first few levels.

Spartan 34 said:
? quoting omegaslayer

Thanks for the hint KFS I guess thats why im not good at holing things in:lol:..... But If someone puts out a Halo 2 PC (preferably someone other than gearbox) Ill buy it if they fix the FPS cap thing....Unlikely though.... :sad:
How can you say that? Gearbox did a great job of porting the game. You usually never see a game ported that smoothly.

Yes, people tend to forget Gearbox didn't remake the model's animations, they just adapted the game from Xbox hardware to PC (Not really THAT hard). The animations were created to be shown at 30fps. Because it's a console game on a TV it wouldn't make sense to make them higher. The computer version isn't a remake, it's a port. For a PORT it is fairly good even if you're used to playing other FPS at higher rates.

Unless Bungie made some higher framed animations, I wouldn't expect higher animated models in a H2 port. Not that you need them, just play at 30fps. :rolleyes:

Yes, but you're assuming it will actually run at 30fps, which wasn't the case in my experience. I had to run at 800x600 with all the detail turned down to get that, and guess what? On the same computer I can run CSS at 800x600 with some detail and get more than 30fps.

That's not the issue they were bitching about though. I didn't say it was excelent or anything, it still has many many faults. It's just the modeling frame limit isn't really one of them.

It doesn't run well on my computer either, so, I know what you're talking about. I doubt they translated all the code properly. They probably just emulated Xbox software and ran it on that. That would be the easiest thing to do, anyway.

http://www.snarkpit.com/forums.php?forum=1&topic=2286&highlight=halo,performance

Reach that if you are interested in why Halo ran like crap on the PC :smile:

ReNo said:
Reach that if you are interested in why Halo ran like crap on the PC :smile:

it would be better if he read it duncan, the smoothness of the monitor precludes reaching it and i dunno if lep ever implemented the braille for the blind yet.

I don't know what your all talking about. Halo runs fine on my super computer that I purchased from MIT.

i never liked halo, i played the demo and thaught the game was crap, il never buy it.

Yeah i know, everyone thinks Halo 2 is great and everything, and they say HL2 is crap. Out of the competition between HL2, San Andreas and Halo 2, I think that Half-life two is definetly the best.

snagraz_x said:
Yeah i know, everyone thinks Halo 2 is great and everything, and they say HL2 is crap. Out of the competition between HL2, San Andreas and Halo 2, I think that Half-life two is definetly the best.

AAH IT HURTS MY EYES.

Welcome to the snarkpit BTW.